“Mr. Connolly’s slam-bang thriller is studded with memorable characters and boasts cliffhangers within cliffhangers.” –The Wall Street Journal “Brilliant…Connolly is writing at the top of his game.” –Publishers Weekly, starred review The New York Times bestselling author of A Book of Bones and “one of the best thriller writers we have” (Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author) … we have” (Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author) goes back to the very beginning of Private Investigator Charlie Parker’s astonishing career with his first terrifying case.
It is 1997, and someone is slaughtering young women in Burdon County, Arkansas.
But no one in the Dirty South wants to admit it.
In an Arkansas jail cell sits a former NYPD detective, stricken by grief. He is mourning the death of his wife and child, and searching in vain for their killer. Obsessed with avenging his lost family, his life is about to take a shocking turn.
Witness the dawning of a conscience.
Witness the birth of a hunter.
Witness the becoming of Charlie Parker.
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Being the 18th book in the series, but also a prequel of sorts, this novel is quite different from the usual fare.
This time, we’re in Arkansas and Charlie Parker is fresh off the police force, which was kind of by mutual agreement. He’s also relatively fresh off the brutal murder of his wife and daughter. Upon searching for clues in that case, he becomes tangled up in a local murder mystery involving the deaths of three young girls. The local law invites him to stay and assist in their investigation and at first, Parker declines. But upon further thought on his way out of town, he turns back and agrees to help. Will he be able to help track down this brutal killer? You’ll have to read this to find out!
It was hard going back with Charlie so fresh after his heartbreaking losses. His grief feels so real to the reader, I swear I felt my own heart crack. Even this soon after the tragedy though, his eyes and body language speak intensity and violence to whomever he meets. He’s not popular in Burdon County, pretty much right off the bat, and the animosity builds every day he remains in town.
I’m going to leave off the plot, other than a few generalities. There were 2 characters I was hoping to see, and they do make an appearance. Even at that time period, we can see and feel how loyal and how strong of a friendship was formed between them. There were other characters, though, both alive and dead that didn’t make an appearance, and though I noticed that, I did not miss them.
Once again, John Connolly delivers. It’s never just the usual murder mystery with him, but this time, it actually was. There was barely a hint of the supernatural at all. It really doesn’t matter to me at this point. If John Connolly wrote it, I’ll read it and tell everyone about it!
My highest recommendation!
Available November 3rd, but you can pre-order here: https://amzn.to/3cFZORw
*Thank you to Atria, NetGalley, and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*
The Dirty South is the 18th instalment in John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series and in reality it is a prequel to the whole series. I know, some of you would be tempted to start with this book when hearing that it is the prequel BUT do NOT do so! Read the series in order as the Charlie Parker of the Dirty South is not yet the Charlie Parker of the first book of the series … the Charlie Parker that will pull you deep down into his world with a number of eccentric characters and this odd strangeness that the writer has created …
It is 1997, Arkansas, and someone is butchering young black women … and no one is really trying to figure out why as the town needs to draw in corporate investors … there is one though, a former NYPD detective, sitting in a prison cell, brought to his knees with the mourning of his murdered wife and daughter, looking for their killer … he takes notice of it and the writer takes us on the journey of making of THE Charlie Parker who have come to love …
We get the story from multiple viewpoints – the people from the town (mainly the police detectives and the movers and shakers) … the writer takes us deep under the surface of the town, it takes time to get down to the roots of it all, the evil that hides and preys on the innocent … and then we get Charlie, the emerging of the hunter, the sharpening of the intuition, the promise of what is to come … Even though it is the beginning of the Charlie Parker as we know him, his loyal sidekicks Angel and Louis do make an appearance as well …
I think having read the previous stories, one can get so much more out of the story then what one might think when picking up the book and going “where is my Charlie Parker”??? You simply need to take a deep breath, slow down and go with it … trust the writer!
This is a book earlier in Parker’s career, not too long after the death of his wife and daughter. If you like Connolly’s work, you’ll like this one as well. More of a mystery than many of his books. I found it quite satisfying.
Liked it so much I went back and bought the 1st book in the series and started from the beginning
I think the story could have been told in about 250 pages, not 500. A bit too long-winded for my taste.
As much as I loved this trip back in time, reading this book in the order written only adds to the depth of Parker’s journey. I’ve been here since the beginning; I’ll stay through to the end. May it be a long time coming.
A serial killer is lose in a small Arkansas, and the body count is growing. An ex-NYPD detective passes through town and assists with the case. No one is to be trusted. The reader will want to keep reading to find out what is really the truth. Great read.
I do love me some Charlie Parker…
This prequel / origin story was excellent. I’m a relatively new fan of the series, having only read a few of the books, and thought this felt chronologically very much like the writing and story style of the first Parker novel, in its focus on the evil of men and how that drives the other types of evil that Parker winds up facing over time.
The writing was excellent as always, as were the plotting and pacing. It was delightful to see Angel and Louis in a brief cameos here, and to see the origins of so many Parker relationships end personality quirks. If you’re new to the series, this is as good a place to start as any – there are some references at the beginning and end to later events, but having not read very far in the series myself, I didn’t find them to be problematic.
Chalk up another win for John Connolly!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.
The Dirty South. Connolly always does me right, doesn’t really matter what he’s writing about. The Dirty South is no different. It’s not the greatest Charlie Parker book, even as it takes place within the timeline of Every Dead Thing (which is probably the best of the bunch, in my opinion, along with The Burning Soul and The Unquiet) but it is a very good book. It was nice reading his take on Arkansas because the locations of Connolly’s books are almost main characters. The Karagol is one of the best. If you love Connolly, you will love this book. If you’ve never read a Charlie Parker novel, this one is definitely a standalone and it will encourage you to read all the rest of the novels in this amazing series. You will miss the impact of one particular scene, but it won’t take away from the overall experience of the book.
And now I wait another year.
At first, I thought The Dirty South was going to be one of those books I needed to slow down and sip like fine brandy while the ghosts of Shakespeare, Raymond Chandler, and yes, even Agatha Christie, chilled my back. I was wrong. Yes, one can make a case that those authors’ influence can be felt in these pages, but only because excellent writing is timeless, a solid plot will out, and a great mystery always follows the rules.
The Dirty South is all John Connolly. It is a fast-paced ride through a violent small southern town in 1997 where three women have been found dead in what appears to be identical ritualistic murders.
The revelation of so many deaths is not in the best interests at the current time, financially, for most of the pockets in Burdon county, including the wealthy Cade family. Certain wealthy investors are about to decide whether to put their money into Burdon County or to take it somewhere else. The County Sheriff is of those Cades, and the local chief of Police is not.
Meanwhile, Charlie Parker was drifting like a ghost from rumor to rumor, looking for the man who had murdered his wife and daughter. The symbolic nature of the three women’s murders brought Parker into town. A stranger, unwilling to answer questions, he ended up in the local jail.
Suddenly, wow, there came a place where it seemed as if the pages were greased, and I was on the slide. Make sure you’ve cleared your decks first; if you’re like me, you won’t be able to stop reading when you reach that point. John Connolly knows how to lead you down a gentle garden path only to throw you on a twisty rollercoaster to an exciting end.
There was at least one tease that rippled through the book, an unanswered question like a short tantalizing refrain. Since it didn’t pertain specifically to the mystery in this book, I didn’t mind it being left open, but I’ll go to the rest of John Connolly’s books in a search to find the answer. And I understand, even then, my quest may be in vain. And that will be okay with me.
Recommended!
The publisher provided my ARC via #NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.
Oh man….I do love me some Charlie Parker.
I’ve been a fan of John Connolly for years now. His books NEVER disappoint. Mystery, murder, violence, humor, sadness and friendship, blended together into yet another phenomenal book.
I’ve been a fan and constant reader of John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series for damn near twenty years now. With The Dirty South, the eighteenth entry in this series (nineteenth if you count, and you should, The Reflecting Eye, a Parker novella included in 2004’s story collection, Nocturnes), I can’t help but wonder if I have any superlatives left to throw Connolly’s way, but let’s see what I can muster up here.
The Dirty South takes us back to 1999, inserting itself into the unfolding narrative of Connolly’s debut and readers’ introduction to Charlie Parker in Every Dead Thing. Parker is hunting for the serial killer that brutally murdered his wife and daughter, investigating strings of grisly murders across the US that he hopes will link him to the man that took everything from him. In the course of this investigation, he lands in Arkansas, where two young black women have been murdered in similar fashion and a third has just been discovered. Being the stranger in town, and rather unforthcoming with answers when questioned by police, Parker ends up in a jail cell. It doesn’t take long for the cops to learn about Parker’s history, though, and he goes from suspect to unlikely ally. Originally content to simply leave town, Parker begins to realize that he’s the only one who can speak for these dead women and agrees to help.
By taking us back to very nearly the start of Parker’s on-going and evolving story, The Dirty South might be the most accessible and new reader-friendly entry in ages. I normally advise readers to start from the very beginning with this series because of the way Connolly’s characters and mythology have grown, but for the first time in quite a number of years I actually think somebody who hasn’t yet dived into these books yet could very comfortably wade into this entry and not feel lost.
We see here a younger Charlie Parker, one we haven’t seen in quite some time, one wracked with grief and eager to die so he can rejoin his family, and he hasn’t yet become acquainted with the depth of this honeycomb world or the varied depravity of its inhabitants. The supernatural and horror elements that have become a mainstay of this series over the years are very light here, and act more as a reflection of Parker’s moods, casting them in unreliable shadows and shades of metaphor rather than literal, inexplicable events. Parker’s sarcasm, thankfully, is still on full display, and Connolly against displays his knack for witty banter a number of times over the course of this investigation.
You don’t have to know everything that’s been going on lo these past twenty years to dig into and enjoy The Dirty South, but I think you’ll be keen to discover those stories, too, once you’re finished with this book. And you’ll most definitely want to know more about Luis and Angel!
On a side note, I can’t help but wonder why the hell John Connolly hasn’t won an Edgar or Bram Stoker Award for these books yet. He received a Shamus Award for Every Dead Thing, and deservedly so in my eyes, and an Edgar Award for a short story in 2014, but damnit… he deserves ALL the awards, and I feel like it’s a giant oversight that the Charlie Parker series hasn’t received more recognition from Connolly’s peers in the horror and mystery/thriller communities. He’s a masterful mystery author, and The Dirty South illustrates this perfectly with his cast of ne’er-do-wells, red herrings, and dense but not tryingly complex plotting, as well as a leading character that has proved incredibly enduring (and endearing) over the years. John Connolly is, absolutely, positively, hands-down, one of the best in the business. He’s gotten plenty of well-deserved accolades. Now give him some statues for these novels, damnit!
Over the years I have read many rave reviews about John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series but had never read one of his books. Since this is a prequel to the Parker character I thought this was a good place to start.
The beginning grabbed my attention as we find Parker not long after the death of his wife and daughter in a small town, Cagill, Arkansas. He was just passing through at the beginning of his hunt for his family’s killer. There have been two, perhaps three cases of young black women killed within a short period of time and left naked, mutilated and dead in what seemed at first random places. Parker was starting to investigate any murders that might have been committed by the same person who killed his family. They were violated as well as murdered, so he was drawn to investigate what happened in Cagill. The police chief asks Parker to help since he has a background in criminal investigations and was with the NYPD.
This southern town is about as bad as things can get. There are few businesses, a few bars and restaurants and a couple of motels. There are lots of characters to keep straight in this novel with families that have lived in the town for a long time and many have deep grudges against each other. Besides the murder of the black women there is also a big time meth operation somewhere in the marshes around the Karagol lake. The police chief, Griffin, has been hampered in his investigations of the women’s deaths because the county Sheriff, Jurel Cade, has reasons why he doesn’t want murders in his county. There is a large company, Kovas, that is poised to build a plant in Cargill and bring prosperity back to the town “Any public acknowledgment of murder risked drawing unwanted attention from outside”. The Cade family has a lot invested in this company coming to town as they own the land where building would take place.
While the beginning of the book grabbed my attention I felt that the large majority of the book was really slowly paced for a mystery/thriller novel. It wasn’t until the last few chapters when those responsible for the meth lab and murder were “dealt with” that I felt some tension and excitement in this book.
I know there are many Connolly fans out there and I’m sure they will enjoy this prequel. For me it was just an o.k. read. The three stars are for the setting and plot twists. I’m sure that this book will find it’s audience.
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss.
This book is set to publish on June 30, 2020